Deep Down Things | SL 2.1 (October 2020)
In this newsletter
- Deep Down Things
- Work & Ministry Update
- Something Beautiful: Little Moments of Sanity
- A Moment of Exegetical Euphoria: Ascending the Mountain of God in Exodus 19
- Pray With Us
You can always read this newsletter in your browser.
The Creation of Light (Gen 1:1-5) by Gustave Doré, wood engraving, 1866
Deep Down Things
Well, it’s been a beautiful September in Durham, England. And busy weeks for me. Despite new waves of intense Corona restrictions that bright chill of Fall has infused these sunny days with an almost tangible beauty. I’m working flat out to prepare for teaching a class on the Pentateuch at the end of the month in Colorado. It has been a wonderful, immersive experience to just sink into these texts and emerge a few days or a week later with a deeper understanding of who God is and who I am. I’ve been struck in my studying this time by just how relational the LORD is with his people. My goal recently has been to focus on consciously doing all of this work in the presence of God. Teaching is a mutual learning process and it is certainly changing me.
If you think of it, remember Meghan, Rue, and Willa in your prayers as I’m traveling a bit over the next three months. As the days get shorter, rainier, and colder with Corona’s restrictive grip tightening again around the country it will grown more difficult for Meghan to manage small kids alone at home. Pray for grace while I’m gone in all its manifestations according to God’s wisdom.
Pray also that my efforts these weeks would open up the Old Testament for our students, pastors and church leaders all, so that they will never view the Pentateuch the same way again.
Despite the threat of a resurgent Corona with all that entails, there’s a freshness in the air deep down things that hints at new beginnings,
>Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
world broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
The Tower of Babel (Gen 11:1-9) by Gustave Doré, wood engraving, 1866
You are Training Pastors to be Faithful to Scripture & Strengthening the Global Church
- I fly to Colorado in three weeks where I’ll be teaching a week-long course on the Pentateuch at William Tennent School of Theology from October 26–30. This is the culmination of a year and a half of work where I’ll get to meet these students and my colleagues face-to-face for the first time. Incredible.
- I’m delighted to report that I am booked and confirmed for teaching Old Testament Message II in Novi Sad, Serbia at the Baptistička Teološka Škola from December 7–11. While Training Leaders International’s US-based staff is currently grounded, as a ministry partner living in the UK I have a unique opportunity to hop over to Serbia and serve the school.
- Weekly Hebrew seminars I am teaching for Tennent Old Testament students are a blast. I love Hebrew and I’ve worked doggedly on in over the last decade—now I’m getting to share it.
Thank you. Your prayers and support empower everything we do.
Jacob Prays for Protection (Gen 32:9-23) by Gustave Doré, wood engraving, 1866
Little Moments of Sanity
I like to think that this newsletter belongs to what Robin Sloan has called “the republic of newsletters.” A wide open space of writing and appreciation online, soaring over a sea of rubbish of every imaginable ilk to offer a moment of sanity and depth. I get a couple of newsletters like this from people I admire and I’ve attempted to model this space on their effort.
Alan Jacobs is one of the thinkers and commentators that I read faithfully because he is always interesting and thoughtful. His weekly newsletter, “Snakes and Ladders” is a gem, packed with curiosities that belie it’s length.
In his own wonderful, nerdy, and whimsical long-form occasional newsletter, “The Society of the Double Dagger,” Robin Sloan was gushing about Jacobs. The object of the gushing was Alan’s new book Breaking Bread with the Dead: A Reader’s Guide to a More Tranquil Mind. I’ll let Robin sell it to you:
>There is a general lament about our (“our”) inability to converse across political and moral differences—across conflicting cosmologies, even. But these conversations are totally possible. In fact, they’re not particularly difficult. All they require is unshakeable integrity and deep trust 😇 > >I have that kind of trust in the writer Alan Jacobs. I’ve been reading him for years, so this isn’t a snapshot impression; it’s built from a hundred examples, some of them vanishingly subtle, all totally consistent. Again and again, I have seen him reject inviting tribalisms, whether political or religious or aesthetic; resist the easy flow of the moment; decline to dunk on his opponents. Again and again, in venues as official as books and magazines and as personal as blog posts and newsletters, he has written and argued with generosity and care and, yes, unshakeable integrity.
It’s all true— and Breaking Bread with the Dead was a this kind of read. In a nutshell, the book is about how reading books by dead authors will expand your view of the world and help you become a more grounded, thoughtful person. But Jacobs doesn’t just tell you this he shows you and teaches you how along the way. You can read a powerful and timely excerpt about Frederick Douglass here.
Highly recommended reading
In a similar vein, I just finished Julie Canlis’s rich A Theology of the Ordinary. Julie is an accomplished theologian, author and speaker, mother of four, and pastor’s wife living in Washington state. In this little handful of a book she explains with charm and grace how ancient heresies sneak into our modern hearts and try to rob our joy, but a robust Trinitarian theology infuses our every mundane day with meaning. Her book is so short, clear, and tangible that I think nearly anyone would enjoy it. Give her your money!
Julie and her husband Matt previously lived in Scotland for some 13 years where he pastored in a rural perish of the Church of Scotland. He made a heartrendingly gorgeous mini-documentary about how the experience changed him that is called Godspeed. They called in some great cameos from Eugene Peterson and N. T. Wright in the film. And its FREE. Click above.
If you’re trying to break bread with the dead, cultivate a more tranquil mind, and live a theologically rich ordinary life at God’s speed, then you obviously need to quit social media yesterday. Netflix (of all people) just released an original documentary called The Social Dilemma. I think most of us simply don’t realize how strategically nefarious the business practices of the social media giants actually are—these are no longer neutral tools they are objectively making our world and your life worse. Honestly, this isn’t just for tech haters, it’s stacked with genius programmers and executives from the most influential companies who quit extremely lucrative jobs because they couldn’t sleep at night. This is compelling and important material.
Finally, If you’re into lush, more-or-less instrumental background music, Juliana Barwick (gorgeous, swelling, choral-inspired compositions), William Tyler (resurrectional, Americana-infused, modern guitar), and Joey Pecoraro (hopeful beats to center you and lift you up) have all released new albums, which is swell.
The Egyptians Drown in the Sea (Ex 14:5-8, 13-29) by Gustave Doré, wood engraving, 1866
Approaching the Mountain of God: Exodus 19 and the Nature of the Pentateuch
(Part I in The Theology of the Pentateuch)
Almost fifty days after the first Passover and their miraculous deliverance from slavery, the children of Israel arrive at Mount Sinai in the wilderness somewhere East of Egypt. We can read this story in Exodus 19 (and the chapters that follow). Terrified, exhausted, and completely unsure of what lies ahead, they will camp at the base of this mountain for nearly a year. The presence of God himself descends to seal a covenant relationship with his people. The Lord appears and speaks and it changes them forever—it is the first Pentecost.
Do we experience the reality that Exodus 19 pictures today? If so, how? Where can we go to meet with God?
Exodus 19 shows us that we can experience the theological reality that it pictures. God is revealing himself to you through the history of his relationship with Israel preserved for us in a collection of ancient Hebrew texts. This collection of texts is the Pentateuch (and really the whole Old Testament). This is the first issue in a ten-part series on the theology of the Pentateuch that I’m adapting from the material I’ll be teaching this month at William Tennent School of Theology.
To understand what the Pentateuch is and how it is working, we can think about the three “horizons” or “worlds” of the text. There is the world within the text, the world behind the text, and the world before the text.
The World Within the Text: God, Moses, and Israel
Exodus 19 is a theological lightning rod for understanding Scripture because in this text we see the convergence of God’s actions and his revelation on our behalf. The first act in view is God’s mighty act of redemption:
Exod 19:3–4
>3 while Moses went up to God. The Lord called to him out of the mountain, saying, ‘Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel: 4 ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.
The only reason they are at this mountain is because God saved them from slavery in Egypt. God’s next act will change them into a unique people with a unique purpose by entering into a covenant with them.
Exod 19:5–6
>5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.
But notice also that there is a third act at work here—a speech act—“These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.” God is not only redeeming his people and appearing to them (action), but he is appearing in order to speak (interpretation). The words that God speaks from the mountain interpret his actions for the people. Because I saved you, you will now be my special people. Because I saved you, you will now live this way.
After a period of strict preparation and purification, the LORD descends. For his fourth act, a theophany, God appears on the mountain.
Exod 19:16–20
>16 On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. 17 Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. 18 Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. 19 And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder. 20 The Lord came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.
The overwhelming power of this scene is captured in the contradictions. A trumpet blast—a man-made sound—thunders over thunder from a place where there are no men. The LORD is present in fire and yet an impenetrable darkness wreaths the mountain. Out of this staggering show of glory the LORD speaks, and he speaks the Ten Commandments, the summary of the requirements of the covenant.
Exod 20:1 …
>And God spoke all these words …
On a plain reading of the text the LORD speaks these words directly to the people, but the sights and sounds ruin them. Their frail natures are overwhelmed and like Adam in the Garden they recoil from the presence of the LORD.
Exod 20:18–21 (cf. 19:9)
>18 Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off 19 and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.” 20 Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.” 21 The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.
But see how Moses interprets the purpose of what they are experiencing? Everything before you, the sights and sounds that are washing over you, are designed to draw you into a particular kind of relationship with God, a relationship where you draw near to him by trusting him in faith.
God’s actions and words converge at Sinai to form the Israelites into a people who will bear his name. This is the historical reality of the Old Testament, the world within the text.
But the people stand far off.
The World Behind the Text: The Book of the Covenant
So, both God’s actions and His speech take place within history, at a real time and place, but they are recorded for us as a diverse collection of ancient literature. This is the literary reality of the Pentateuch, the world behind the text. In other words, the process through which we come to be reading this text, the process through which we can experience Sinai with the Israelites, is a literary process.
The moment of God’s speaking on the mountain to the people of Israel and the moment of that event being recorded and interpreted for “generations of those who love him” are not the same moment. In the world behind the text, Moses records all God’s words (Exod 24:3–4). This “Book of the Covenant” (as Exod 24:7 calls it) represents the seed, the literary-historical core, of the Pentateuch. It preserves not only God’s actions of redemption (event) but also their significance for us (interpretation).
God’s salvific acts and revelatory speech in their written form as Scripture have concerns that reach far beyond the concerns of the world within the text. They include audiences and purposes that transcend the original moment.
The World Before the Text: The Pentateuch in the Present Tense
Did you notice that Exodus 19 includes you? The purpose of God’s appearance was that “the people may hear” and “may also believe you forever” (19:9). As Bruce Waltke observes, “The New Testament represents the Old Testament as that which God says (not said) to us (not them).” The Apostles have a clear and strong belief that we hear the LORD speaking to us directly in the words of the Old Testament (1 Cor 9:9–10; Heb 12:5–6). As the author of Hebrews says to his readers, in the present tense, “Today, if you hear his voice do not harden your heart!” (Ps 95:7–11; Heb 3:7, 15; 4:7). This is the theological reality of the Pentateuch, the world before the text. When God appeared to his people on that mountain he appeared for you.
Heb 12:18–25, 28
>18 For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest 19 and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. 20 For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” 21 Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” 22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 23 and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. 25 See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. … 28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.
When you open your Old Testament to read a passage like Exodus 19 you are entering into the spiritual reality that it describes taking place on the mountain because God is present to you in Christ by the Holy Spirit. In the way that I have framed this definition, in the way that I see it revealed in this text, the world within the text (the historical reality) and the world behind the text (the literary reality) serves us—the world before the text (the theological reality).
There’s a story from church history that bottles this lightening. Blaise Pascal was born in 1623 in France. The world was changing rapidly. The Reformation had overturned the way that Europe related to God, and the rebirth of learning in the Renaissance was steadily giving way to new methods of experiencing and thinking about the world that we call the Enlightenment today. By the time he was 31 years old, Blaise Pascal had cemented his place in the annals of scientific history and Enlightenment erudition:
>At “10, Pascal was doing original experiments in mathematics and physical science. To help his father, who was a tax collector, he invented the first calculating device (some call it the first ‘computer’)” known as ‘the Pascaline.’ “With this last invention, he had made a name for himself (at age 19!) and began his richly diverse scientific career. He tested the theories of Galileo and Torricelli (who discovered the principles of the barometer), culminating in his famous law of hydraulics, which states that pressure on the surface of a fluid is transmitted equally to every point in a fluid. He added important papers on the vacuum, on the weight and density of air, and the arithmetic triangle. He developed the theory of probability, which is still used today. He invented the syringe, the hydraulic lift, and is credited with inventing the wristwatch and mapping out the first bus route in Paris.”
To this point in his life Pascal had dabbled with religion, but his commitment to mathematics and physical science was paramount. In his late 20s he regressed in a so-called “worldly period.” One night, however, when he was 31 he had a mystical experience that changed him forever. Immediately after it was over, he jotted down the following note, a raw impression of that night:
>The year of grace 1654,
>
>Monday, 23 November, feast of St. Clement, pope and martyr, and others in the martyrology. Vigil of St. Chrysogonus, martyr, and others. From about half past ten at night until about half past midnight,
>
>FIRE.
>
>GOD of Abraham, GOD of Isaac, GOD of Jacob
not of the philosophers and of the learned.
Certitude. Certitude. Feeling. Joy. Peace.
GOD of Jesus Christ.
My God and your God.
Your GOD will be my God.
Forgetfulness of the world and of everything, except GOD.
He is only found by the ways taught in the Gospel.
Grandeur of the human soul.
Righteous Father, the world has not known you, but I have known you.
Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy.
I have departed from him:
They have forsaken me, the fount of living water.
My God, will you leave me?
Let me not be separated from him forever.
This is eternal life, that they know you, the one true God, and the one that you sent,
Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ.
I left him; I fled him, renounced, crucified.
Let me never be separated from him.
He is only kept securely by the ways taught in the Gospel:
Renunciation, total and sweet.
Complete submission to Jesus Christ and to my director.
Eternally in joy for a day’s exercise on the earth.
May I not forget your words. Amen. [Ps 119:16]
He titled this little note “Memorial” and sewed it into the lining of his jacket over his heart where it remained until he died just eight years later at 39—his own private covenant document. His legacy from the last eight years of life was not scientific discovery (sadly?), but a profound unfinished work of theological philosophy and apologetics known simply as the Pensées (Thoughts). In it he wrote, “The heart has its reasons that reason does not know.”
Encountering the LORD and hearing his speech changes us. Interpreting Scripture is entering into a theological conversation that connects from the heart of the Triune God to Moses to the author of Hebrews to the Church Fathers to mathematical geniuses like Pascal and to you—with your Bible in your hands—whether you’re in your favorite chair at home or standing before your church. You are approaching the LORD to hear him speak to you from the cloud. In fact, your ability to open your Bible and read this passage at all is a direct result of the historical and spiritual reality that we read about in the text—redemptive acts and speech acts converging. The LORD has redeemed his people. The LORD is speaking to his people. This is no easy thing. You might legitimately be terrified (19:16; 20:18–19). You have to examine yourself (19:10–11). You must listen and respond (19:8). But in the darkness, smoke, and fire, Christ is speaking an invitation to you. Approach this mountain, and I will meet with you there.
LORD, thank you that you are our LORD who appears to us and speaks to us. May we learn to approach the mountain of your Word with due reverence knowing that we hear your voice. Yet may we not fail to draw near, knowing that you are calling us to approach in Christ. Draw us into a real relationship with you that transforms us.
The Giving of the Law on Mount Sinai (Ex 19:9-24) by Gustave Doré, wood engraving, 1866
Pray With Us
- For my prep for teaching at Tennent. Pray that the LORD would help me write lessons that truly open up the Torah for these students.
- For health and safety traveling to and from Colorado to teach. This feels particularly pressing this time around—the threat of Corona is not just an inconvenience it could keep me from teaching and returning to my family in a reasonable amount of time.
- Thank God that it looks like I’ll be able to travel to Serbia to teach Old Testament II in December.
- For progress on my dissertation—as I enter this new “busier” season. I’m praying and working towards finishing next October.
- For Meghan and our new baby to be health and strong. For our little family to be strong and connected and lean into grace.
Moses Comes Down from Mount Sinai (Ex 19:25; 20:1-17) by Gustave Doré, wood engraving, 1866
Notes:
- The images this month are taken from Gustave Doré’s La Grande Bible de Tours (1866). You can view an incredible gallery at Wikimedia commons.
- The framework of the world within, world behind, and world before the text comes from a book called The Revelatory Text by Sandra M. Schneiders.
- The quote from Bruce Waltke is in his Old Testament Theology, page 103.
- Description of Pascal’s accomplishments from “Blaise Pascal: Scientific and Spiritual Prodigy” at ChristianityToday.com.